Animal feeding block and process for preparing the same



United States Patent 3,087,820 ANIMAL FEEDING BLOCK AND PROCESS FORPREPARING THE SAME Richard B. Dawson, Taunton, Somerset, England,assignor to Corn Products Company, New York, N.Y., a corporation ofDelaware No Drawing. Filed Aug. 3, 1960, Ser. No. 47,132 Claimspriority, application Great Britain Aug. 6, 1959 2 Claims. (Cl. 99-2)This invention relates to animal feeding stuffs and particularly toso-called licks. In this specification the term lick means a solid massof edible substance which can be placed on the ground for animals tolick and thereby consume slowly.

The licks are normally placed at various points in fields where they arereadily accessible to the animals. They are provided to enable animalsto make up deficiencies of diet in natural grazing or to obtainnutrient,

prophylactic, or therapeutic substances.

These licks are of necessity exposed to some extent to the weather andsince they contain water soluble substances, they are normallyparticularly vulnerable to the action of rain and dew, consequent-1ythere has hitherto been considerable risk of loss by dissolution.

It is an object of [this invention to reduce this risk of loss withoutat the same time either impairing the nutritive value or reducing theavailability of the lick to an animal. With this object in view a lickaccording to the present invention is made of glucose (dextrose) with orwithout the addition of specific nutrient, prophylactic or therapeuticsubstances, and including a solution inhibitor for resisting rapiddissolution of the lick, such as chalk or its equivalents.

The procedure employed for forming the solid composition of thisinvention comprises admixing the additive or additives with a hotglucose liquor, having a high dextrose equivalent and capable ofcrystallizing on cooling, by agitation in a mixing vessel and, whenhomogeneity has been attained, discharging the hot liquid into a mold inwhich it is allowed to crystallize and set to a solid mass.

The chalk additive is preferably calcium carbonate having a particlesize mainly in the range between 1 and 25 microns and preferably alsocomposed of the calcareous shells of Foraminifera subjected to a methodof size reduction to bring the particles down to the size range icegiven without undue destruction of the hollow characteristic of theparticles. Such a chalk substance is advant-a geously incorporated inthe block in the proportions of between 2 /2 and 10% of the total weightof the block.

Tests have been carried out on solution inhibited blocks of glucoseaccording to the present invention under artificial rain conditions andalso with natural exposure. The artificial tests showed that overperiods of between six and eight weeks the blocks treated according tothe present invention lost approximately 4 lbs. weight less than theuninhibited blocks, the percentage losses being of the order of 5%weight for the inhibited blocks and 20% by weight for the uninhibited.The results of tests under natural exposure were very similar.

The effect of the incorporation of chalk having a substantialmono-cellular structure is that water falling or condensing on thesurfiace of the inhibited block forms initially a thick syrupy solutionof glucose, the viscosity of which is further increased by the presenceof chalk and resists further dilution and subsequent run-off of theresulting solution. However, the formation of the viscous solution doesnot reduce the availability of the lick to the animal, as the process oflicking involves mechanical abrasion apart from the solvent action ofthe saliva.

While I have named glucose in the description of my invention, it is tobe understood that my invention is not limited to the use of glucose(dextrose) but includes all equivalents of glucose.

I claim:

1. A lick comprising a solid, homogeneous admixture of glucose with aminor amount of chalk.

2. A process for preparing a lick which comprises admixing chalk with acrystallizable glucose liquor to form a homogeneous mixture, andallowing the mixture to crystallize and set to a solid mass.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,960,548 Pfeifier May 29, 1934 2,638,433 George May 12, 1953 2,774,710Thompson et a1 Dec. 18, 1956 OTHER REFERENCES Structure and Compositionof Foods, by Winton, vol. IV, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1939,page 15.

1. A "LICK" COMPRISING A SOLID, HOMOGENEOUS ADMIXTURE OF GLUCOSE WITH AMINOR AMOUNT OF CHALK.